Sea of Lights
by The Extraneous Solution
Summary: Lily and James's 7th year at Hogwarts is filled with crazy pranks, random humor and unexpected love. PreOOTP SBOC, RLOC.
1. Normalcy At Hogwarts

Sea of Lights

Chapter 1—Normalcy at Hogwarts

"Hey Lily!" A blonde-haired Ravenclaw called after the redhead in front of her.

Lily Evans turned around. "Oh hey, Shawna," she said before turning back around, hoping desperately that the blonde's name was indeed, Shawna— as she didn't know the girl very well.

"Lily!"

"What's up, Lil?"

"Hi Lily!"

Various people called out to the fiery redhead as she walked down the corridor.

Lily sighed. It was just another day as Hogwarts' most perfect and popular girl. In truth, she hated the attention, but she was just naturally charismatic and easily attracted the affection of people.

Standing at about 5'5", Lily Evans was a stunning girl with wavy red hair and deep emerald eyes, and unfortunately for her, she often was the victim of lovesick teenage boys at Hogwarts.

And while throughout her 7 years at Hogwarts, Lily had always been at the top of the social ladder, she only had two close friends.

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THWAP

Lily dropped her books on a table beside a momentarily startled brunette.

"Hey Marsh."

Her best friend Marsha looked up and smiled. "Rough first day back?"

"Tell me about it," she said. "Three boys asked me out, five tried to get me to sit with them, a couple wanted to walk with me…" she ranted on and on for 5 minutes as Marsha waited patiently beside her. "…Anyways, I have loads of homework."

Marsha made a noise of consent, and they began to delve into the world of numbers, goblins, laws, spells, and herbs.

Marsha DeLaurier was a brown haired and amber-eyed girl. Like Lily, she was popular and didn't like it. Yet Marsha only objected to the attention because she tended to be shy and enjoyed staying away from social events and the public in general. Lily, however, was fiery and more conversational. Nonetheless, the similarity between to the two girls was evident, and perhaps the most noticeable trait was their independence. Both girls had realized early on that boys at Hogwarts had a tendency to be womanizers, and they had resolved to refrain from dating, as they didn't believe that love could come at such a young age.

"I wonder how the giant rebellion actually affected the goblins if they really did—" Lily began, but was quickly cut off by a loud bang.

The entire school turned to see all of the Slytherins wearing purple wigs and bright pink shirts that had a flashing target on it. The Slytherins themselves seemed to be stunned, and they floated around the Great Hall in a trance.

Immediately, Hogwarts' most mischievous group (a.k.a. the Marauders) stood up and began flinging their food at the targets on the hot pink shirts. Apparently, if a target were hit, the Slytherin who wore the shirt would scream out a secret of theirs. James, the unofficial leader of the Marauders, quickly demonstrated this as he grabbed a carrot and struck the bulls-eye of an entranced and therefore unsuspecting Slytherin nearby.

"I love ponies!" Severus Snape squeaked out immediately.

The Great Hall roared with laughter, and soon, most of the school was throwing their dinner at the floating Slytherins.

"Where are the teachers?" asked a worried Marsha.

"Not here, obviously," Lily stated. "Honestly Marsh, have some fun and help me hit Bertha Bullstrode! You're always such a good girl!"

"Oh but… well… oh what the hell!" Marsha cried and flicked a spoonful of pudding into the air.

Ten minutes later, the professors had returned, peeved at some idiot who had called them away for a "teachers meeting."

As they entered the hall, a look of disbelief crossed the face of every teacher and they stared at the chaos. For a moment, every professor was frozen in shock, but then again, they remembered, a day at Hogwarts with the Marauders was never ordinary.

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The evening's events were the topic of discussion throughout the next day.

"Bertha has a crush on Crabbe!" Lily announced triumphantly to Marsha, who laughed.

"I still feel bad, I mean Snape must have been hit so many times that he had no secrets left to spill! And you're head girl, Lily! You should have done something!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "I've always wondered why I'm Head Girl. You're obviously much more diligent and better behaved…"

"Well I'm actually satisfied with being prefect. But you being Head Girl's no mystery Lils, you're at the top of the class!"

"James, however, getting Head Boy—now that's a mystery!" chimed in a brunette who approached them.

"Amy!!" screamed Marsha and Lily engulfing the poor girl in a hug.

Amy Huntsford was a tall, athletic Gryffindor who had missed the first day of school because her sister was getting married. Her idiosyncrasies made her very different from either Marsha or Lily, in that she often looked at things in a different light.

"Yeah well anyways," Lily said, returning to their previous discussion, "James getting Head Boy really is something. I mean, he pranks all the time and has about a million detentions. And _even_ with his stellar grades, I don't see how he can pull it off…"

---------------

"Damn James!" Sirius laughed, recalling last night's incidents. "You must have hit Snape and Malfoy 100 times!"  
"Yeah, well, you know, being Chaser really has its advantages!" James responded. Remus and Peter chuckled.

The Marauders, of course, were made up of four troublemaking yet adored boys—James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. James, who was the captain of the Quidditch team, Head boy, and second best student (behind Lily), had messy black hair, that, for some reason, girls found "sexy." And even though James was perhaps the most eligible bachelor at Hogwarts, he only dated a few nice girls and instead focused on having fun and pranking.

Sirius Black was the ladies' man of the school. He had straight brown hair and chocolate colored eyes. He did well enough in school, although he didn't study, and instead liked to play Quidditch (he was beater), womanizing, and of course, being a Marauder, pulling pranks.

Remus Lupin, a Gryffindor prefect, was a sandy haired boy who was generally reserved. He was intelligent and studied hard. He liked to read and observe other people, which were characteristics similar to that of the position he played on the house team, seeker. In most cases, Remus Lupin could read the emotions of people like a book, except for, that is, himself.

Peter Pettigrew was the last member of the Marauders. He was shy and nice, despite the reputation he earned from pranking. He seemed dull to most people, although he really just liked to remain silent and listen to others. Unlike the rest of the Marauders, Peter wasn't on the Quidditch team as he wasn't fond of the sport, so he usually spent time dreaming while he sat on the sidelines of practices and games.

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That night, James and Remus walked back from the library discussing their essays. Suddenly, Remus glanced at his watch and realized they were 10 minutes late for the prefect meeting. Skidding into the room 2 minutes later, the two boys quickly assumed their positions, guilt still plastered to their faces. No matter how irresponsible they were with pranks, they still felt an obligation to their duties as prefect and head boy (which is, perhaps, reassuring…).

"Sorry…" James trailed off as he headed to the front of the room where Lily stood. She smiled graciously and said, "It's okay; we didn't really get started yet."

"Oh ok, good."

Lily and James, surprisingly, didn't really know each other. Despite both being rather popular and both being in Gryffindor, they never really had classes together, and Lily's independence removed her from a lot of the people who weren't normally in her classes.

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After the meeting ended, all the prefects filed out.

"Well I guess we should set up a schedule and meet in between prefect meetings to work on the stuff in the agenda." Lily said after they had all left.

"Yeah, that'd be good. How about we meet in the common room on Wednesday, at 8?" James said hesitantly.

Lily was surprised. She didn't expect James to take initiative. She had only seen him pull lighthearted pranks, and thought he had slacked off. "Okay, sure. I'll see you there then." She said as she packed up her stuff to leave.

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As James climbed the steps to the boys' dormitory, he wondered why he had never truly known Lily Evans. 'I guess it's just because we've never been in the same class before. Although I am in her class this year… maybe I'll get to know her then.' He thought to himself before he promptly went to bed.

A/N: So you're now wondering--- DOES THE TITLE MAKE SENSE?! and yes, it does... but you'll have to wait and see! Meanwhile, I would greatly appreciate it if you reviewed! Thanks for reading!


	2. Transfiguration With Muffin

Chapter 2—Transfiguration with Muffin

"Rise and shine, Muffin!" Sirius yelled into James' ear the next morning.

"Go away Siri…" James mumbled and swatted at Sirius with his right arm. The Marauder skillfully stepped out of James' range.

Remus laughed as he watched. Every morning, Sirius yelled for "muffin" to get up, and every morning, James mumbled something incoherent and attempted to hit Sirius. By now, James had started responding to Sirius' wake up calls on a subconscious level and it was difficult for poor Sirius to wake James up, as well as avoid being clobbered in the stomach.

Unsuccessful, he sighed and threw his hands up in frustration. After a few moments, his eyes gleamed evilly as he said, "You leave me with no choice, buddy." And within moments, he used his wand to cast a jet of water at James.

Five seconds later, James woke up, spluttering. "What. The…?"

He looked around and found his dorm empty. Glancing at the clock, he noticed that breakfast started in 5 minutes.

"Shit!" James yelled before jumping to his feet and quickly getting ready. In 2 minutes, he was running down the steps to the Great Hall.

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'Wow' Lily thought as she watched James sprint into the Great Hall. 'He looks pretty good with his hair all wet and messy… wait! What's happening to me? I sound like one of those shallow girls who fall in love with looks!' Lily mentally slapped herself before directing her attention to her toast.

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"Today, we are going to learn how to transform animals into other animals." Professor McGonagall announced to her Advanced Transfiguration class. "I will put you into pairs, as this is very difficult…"

Lily continued to doodle on the margin next to her notes, appearing to be disinterested, although she was really listening. Once, she glanced up, and saw a horde of boys looking hopefully in her direction, before she quickly averted her eyes.

"Malfoy, Black" McGonagall began, but hastily changed her mind after she saw the two boys glaring daggers at each other. "Er… that is to say, Malfoy and Guffany… and Black and DeLaurier."

"Lupin, Hadger."

"Evans, Potter"

Lily felt strangely excited about working with James, even though she knew the only reason McGonagall had paired the two of them together was because Lily happened to do very badly in transfiguration, and James did very well. Maybe she had a chance of both having fun and doing well this time…

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"You have to be more loose when you say the spell… You'll take someone's eye out with your wand gripped so tightly!" James laughed as he watched a sweating Lily try the "Morphus" spell over and over. As if on cue, sparks flew from Lily's wand and blasted a piece of parchment on McGonagall's desk into flames, and the cat they were experimenting with, shrieked. Both students dissolved into a fit of laughter as the Professor looked over disapprovingly.

"I can't do this!" Lily gasped between her laughing.

"Ok just try and picture a rabbit. Something small. And lightly hold onto the end of your wand. Say it almost lazily… 'Morphus'"

"Morphus!" The cat jumped and promptly turned purple

"No… Morphus… not Morphus!… Mooorphus."

"Mooorphus" And Lily's eyes grew wide as her cat turned into a very ugly, yet whole, rabbit.

"Awesome! See? Not so hard, eh?" James asked after Lily had spent 10 minutes perfecting the "Morphus" charm.

"Yeah I guess. I mean, I've never had so much success at transfiguration before!" Lily smiled as she casually flicked her wand at the poodle—which transformed into a goldfish.

The two of them shared a smile before the bell rang and they hurried to put their stuff away. As she walked to Arthimancy, Lily thought that she not only had immense success in the class, but also fun.

A/N: Yuck... I hated writing that last sentence, but hey this is a romance is it not? Anyway, I promise it won't get all mushy and I will take this fanfic down before my characters begin to spout cliched phrases of romance... deal?

P.S. Reviewing might be nice.


	3. Muffins, Blueberries and Raspberries?

Chapter 3- Muffins, Blueberries _and_ Raspberries? (Is the author insane?)

Lily's heart sped as she saw James entering the Great Hall one chilly September morning. She was staring blankly when Amy interrupted her.

"Hellooo? Lily?" Amy called to her.

"Stop zoning out! I mean, I know it's still early in the morning…" Marsha agreed as she turned around to see what Lily was looking at.

Lily smiled and apologized, turning to face her pancakes again. What was happening to her? She couldn't stop herself from dreaming—_no, not dreaming_—she reminded herself. _I'm merely thinking about him. _

"So did you guys study for that Transfiguration test today?" Amy asked through a mouthful of eggs. She never really did understand the concept of manners.

"Uhhh…" Marsha stared disgustedly at Amy.

"Don't talk with your mouth full." Lily snapped in the tone of an exhausted mother who had reminded her child of such things one too many times. Which she had. Amy merely shrugged and smiled sheepishly.

"Right well… I did." Marsha volunteered.

"I… tried." Lily said. She glanced (not very subtly) at the end of the Gryffindor table were the "Marauders" as they had come to address themselves were laughing hysterically, without a care in the world. "I bet James and Sirius didn't study… and they'll still ace the test," Lily said miserably. She quickly tried to brush away the butterflies in her stomach when she had said the word "James."

Marsha and Amy looked down at the end of the table and saw the four boys as well. Amy merely nodded sympathetically, but Marsha's eyes grew wide. She, unlike Amy, was much more observant and noticed that Lily's voice had practically become strangulated when she said "James." However, she kept her mouth shut, as always, and muttered "Boys will be boys. Anyway, they _do_ study. Kind of. I mean 5 minutes before the test starts, they're more concentrated than anyone else…"

Lily snorted. "Yeah, for 5 minutes. And for the rest of the time, they just huddle around, whispering to each other, plotting god knows—"

"ARGH!!"

A loud yell interrupted the chatter in the Great Hall. Lucius Malfoy's clothing had transfigured, most mysteriously, into a bulging red costume. He stood there, in all his glory, fabulously resembling a raspberry. His skin too, was red. Unaccustomed to the added weight on his sides, he teetered around the Great Hall dangerously.

The Marauders, however, weren't done. With two more loud bangs, Severus Snape, who was sitting next to him, was sent rolling around the Great Hall, looking very much like a blueberry, while a large banner unfolded above Lucius, reading "LUCIUS IS LUCIOUS!"

The rest of the Slytherin table looked around uneasily, but after a few seconds they resumed eating, certain that they were not the next targets. Lucius and Severus, however, momentarily stunned by their sudden transformation, quickly sprang into action, making furious attempts to get to the Marauders. Unfortunately for the two Slytherin boys, their new bulky figures proved hard to maneuver in, and they continuously tipped over after being unable to balance themselves. Behind them, Lucius' girlfriend, Narcissa was screeching and running after Lucius with her arms outstretched, as if to rush to his aid.

"Who did this?" McGonagall asked wearily, already knowing the answer.

"ME!" James and Sirius shouted with glee, only too happy to take credit for the prank they had just committed.

McGonagall sighed and dully asked the boys to follow her.

Most of the students who had not returned to their breakfast were still laughing when McGonagall left with James and Sirius, who were turning around incessantly, waving their arms about in triumph. Lucius and Severus however, began screaming "WHAT ABOUT _US_?! WHO IS GOING TO TRANSFIGURE US BACK?"

-------

Dumbledore was absent from the school that day, after leaving abruptly to discuss serious business with the Minister of Magic; so little Flitwick was the teacher in charge. He claimed matter-of-factly that he was a charms teacher, and not a specialist in Transfiguration and that he could not help the boys. Other teachers seemed to nod and repeat similar excuses (although Lily was suspicious that they were merely lying and gaining retaliation for all the insolence and disrespect the two Slytherins had treated them with). The head of the Slytherin house, Professor Wharton, however, began to attempt to help his students. Unfortunately for him, the spells the Marauders had used were too complex for his skills and he nearly set fire to his two pupils who were forced to attend their first class of the day as a half scorched blueberry and raspberry.

------

Lily and Marsha approached Transfiguration hurriedly skimming their books for any details they had neglected to study, while Amy walked, in a rather ungraceful attempt, with her book balanced on her head.

"Amy, what in the world _are_ you doing?" Lily asked looking up momentarily from her book to see where she was going.

"Osmosis! My head is absorbing the information!" Amy said cheerfully as the book toppled off her head for the seventh time.

Marsha rolled her eyes and continued to read the text and walk, not watching where she was going, when suddenly she crashed straight into Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew who were in front of them.

"Ouch!" Remus rubbed the back of his head where Marsha book had painfully collided into him.

"Ohh! I'm sorry!" Marsha said blushing. She bent down to help up Peter who was now sprawled on the ground and began muttering what Lily thought must have been 100 "sorry's."

"Hi Marsha… Lily… Amy," Remus said after recovering. "So did you guys study?"

Lily held up her book and motioned to it. "We're trying now. Well at least Marsha and I were. Amy's just trying to _absorb_ the information by pressing it against her skull."

"It's too thick to actually soak it up though," Marsha added sarcastically.

"Hey!" Amy said, but she dropped her book again and stooped down to get it.

"Well I reckon studying your books won't help much. About 75 of the test is supposed to be a practical," Remus said.

"WHAT?!" Lily shouted and several startled Ravenclaws turned and looked in their direction. "How… where did you hear that?" She added meekly.

"McGonagall told me yesterday when I went for extra help," Peter stated.

Lily and Marsha moaned, but Amy was far ahead of them, skipping to her own rhythm, one hand on top of her head, keeping her book in place, and the other one swinging vigorously.

"Amy… don't—!" Lily tried to call to her friend, but it was too late. Amy's arm had swung into Sirius who was just walking with James and he fell to ground, nearly unconscious.

"OOH I'M SORRY!!" Amy shouted.

Lily and Marsha sighed. She _never_ was normal.

"Uhhhh its okay." Sirius said after a prolonged period of time. The girls and rest of the Marauders bent over him cautiously, trying to help him stand up.

"You guys really can take people out!" Remus laughed. "First Marsha nearly kills me and Peter, and now Sirius is half knocked-out because of Amy."

Marsha laughed nervously, and Amy laughed appreciatively.

"Sirius you okay?" James asked, and Sirius nodded uncertainly. "We better get to class." He said pointing at the next door down the hallway.

"Yeah." Lily said, ignoring the skip in her heart when she made eye contact with James.

"Pink elephants." Sirius muttered. "They're everywhere."

"Oh good, he's fine," Remus said earnestly.

Everyone looked at each other grinning. Sirius was always slightly insane…

---------

Upon arriving to Transfiguration, McGonagall looked at her group of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws.

"I _do_ hope you studied for this test." She said harshly. "Now if you will take out your quills you can complete the first section of the test…"

Lily nervously grabbed at her favorite quill and began scribbling everything she could remember. Before long, she heard McGonagall telling them to put their quills down and take out their wands. One by one, every student went into McGonagall's office to perform the task at hand.

"Miss DeLaurier!" McGonagall called, and Marsha, who was shaking slightly, walked to the back of the classroom and disappeared behind the wooden door.

"Now Miss Delaurier. If you would please transform this ferret into a mongoose…?" McGonagall said sternly.

Marsha whispered her incantation and watched in fascination as her ferret grew bigger…

"Very good." McGonagall said, although her tone was just as harsh. "Next—you will please change this flame into water."

Oh the tortures of school…

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One hour later, all the seventh year Gryffindors were lying around the common room discussing their test.

"I think I did okay…" Lily said quietly to Amy and Marsha, trying to ignore the people who were sitting around them.

"Oh I'm sure you did fine Lily!" Britney, a girl with blonde hair said in an overly cheerful voice. "You always do!"

"Oh thanks…" Lily said. She normally would have said that Transfiguration was her worst subject, but she didn't feel like talking to a lot of people right now. Instead, she chose to look around the room.

The Marauders were lounging around on the ground, playing Exploding Snap. James and Sirius had stridden confidently out of McGonagall's classroom and Remus also betrayed a sense of self-assurance afterward. Poor Peter, however, was so nervous during the test that he had accidentally performed the spell on Professor McGonagall, watching in horror, as her face grew furrier and furrier, until she angrily changed herself back in the nick of time. James looked up and caught Lily's eye and motioned for the girls to come over.

They sat down in a big circle on the ground and Lily asked what their punishment was for the Malfoy and Snape escapade that had taken place that morning.

"Oh you know, just a week's worth of detentions." James said.

"_Although_," Sirius smiled evilly, "She did say that James needs to clean up his act or he loses his head boy badge!"

"I know!" James moaned. "How am I ever going to get enough detentions to match yours now?"

"Mwhahaha!!! I shall be the ONLY student in Hogwarts to get more than 500 detentions!" He continued to laugh until James whacked him over the head.

"Deal us in idiot." James said, looking disgruntled. The girls and the Marauders laughed.

"Poor James…" Remus simpered, in an attempt to imitate James' first girlfriend, Liz. "Would Jamie like me to make things better? I could you know…" Remus began fluttering his eyelashes flirtatiously causing James to look around the group murderously as they all laughed hysterically.

"Hey guys… that's really not funny!"

"Oh yes it is!" Marsha laughed. "That was a perfect rendition Remus!"

Remus bowed as well as he could sitting down. "Thank you, thank you. I've been practicing. Autographs on Thursday only, please."

James sighed. "Well now I finally know how you feel Remus. No more pranks!" He muttered incredulously.

"Not necessarily!" Sirius and Amy shouted at the same time. They looked at each other confused, and Amy continued. "You could, but you couldn't claim responsibility."

James shook his head. "That just means more detentions for him!" He pointed at Sirius.

"Either way," Lily said, "McGonagall's going to know you did it. Whether or not you claim responsibility. Unless… you prank on people and try to frame Malfoy and Snape for it…" She said conspiratorially, and then clapped her hand over her mouth. Something like that should not have come out of a Head Girl's mouth.

But James eyes were already sparkling. "I _love_ they way your mind thinks!"

Marsha smiled as she watched Lily's face get redder and redder from the compliment. Things were definitely going to be interesting between the Head Boy and Girl this year…

I hope you enjoyed the third installment, and please review!!

P.S. I can't control my insanity… in case you were wondering.


	4. Tutus and Tryouts

Chapter 4!! We're about 40 of the way there!

Chapter 4- Tutus and Tryouts

James bounced around the following morning.

"Wow! I didn't have to wake you up this morning." Sirius said disappointedly; he really did enjoy dumping ice-cold water on an unsuspecting James.

"Yup yup yup yup yup… It's Quidditch tryouts today!!" James continued to jump up and down rapidly as if he were on a pogo stick.

"I wonder who's going to be the new keeper and chaser." Remus mused. "We really do run out of chasers every year… and as for keeper, I don't know if we'll ever replace Emma Grafton."

"I'm sure you will." Peter said with a twinge of envy in his voice. He did want to be on the team, but his short and slightly pudgy build, and nervous disposition made him a hazard in the air.

"Hey breakfast time!" James called and rushed downstairs.

"This year is going to be killer. James is going to work us to death." Sirius muttered ruefully and followed his best friend.

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"Eggs? Anyone want eggs?" James asked as he dished some scrambled eggs into his plate and continued to eat ravenously.

"James… please stop. You're spraying me with food." Remus said disgustedly.

"Wwite" James said with his mouth wide open, displaying half masticated yellow blobs.

"Don't eat with your mouth open." Lily snapped as she approached them with Amy and Marsha and sat down. And then she blushed and realized that scolding had almost become a habit due to Amy's horrible manners.

"Morning," said Sirius while James looked sheepishly at her.

"Good morning." The three girls chorused.

"By the way, James is kind of scary this morning…" Remus whispered to the girls. "He's you know… psyched about Quidditch tryouts so he's kinda…"

"Maybe we should start coming up with plays now!" James said exuberantly, not hearing Remus.

"You get the point." Remus said, rolling his eyes.

"YEAH!" Said Amy, who was also on the team. She was a fellow chaser and she and James were probably the most enthusiastic ones on the team.

"HEY JAMES! Why don't you just do acrobatics on your broom during the next game so that everyone will be staring at you and then Remus can catch the snitch while the Slytherin seeker is gaping?!" Sirius said mockingly.

"I'll leave that up to you Sirius, you're the one who's experience in ballet anyway." James shot back amicably.

"Hey… that was below the belt!"

Sirius had been forced to take ballet lessons as a kid and didn't tell anyone until the Marauders unearthed a picture of him in a skintight suit and a tutu. Now the Marauders used it as a comeback to any of Sirius' insults as it was sure to shut him up.

"Good for flexibility." Sirius muttered under his breath.

"Yeah that and damaged goods." Peter laughed. "What with the tight suit and all…"

They all laughed and Sirius had the grace to smile before whacking Peter over the head.

"Right James. Before I forget. Dumbledore's back and he wanted to talk to us after breakfast." Lily said quickly.

"Okay." James said looking puzzled. "Do you guys know why he had to leave to see the minister?"

"That's where he was these past two days?" Marsha said in a hushed voice.

"Yeah, my mom is the Minister's secretary." James responded.

"I've heard there have been more and more attacks." Peter contributed.

"What? What attacks?" Lily looked confused. As a Muggleborn, she wasn't privy to information about the wizarding world during the summer. The others quickly filled her in and before they could discuss the matter further, the bell rang and James and Lily hurried off to Dumbledore's office.

"Gumdrops." James said lazily as they arrived at the entrance. Lily looked at him questioningly and he responded, "I've been here a lot for detentions."

He flashed a grin and pointed at the rising staircase. "After you, m'lady."

Lily snorted and stepped forward. "Trying to be smooth now, are we?"

"No I leave that up to Sirius and his pink tutu."

"Sirius has a pink tutu?" Dumbledore asked with interest as they walked into his office.

Lily was surprised that Dumbledore had actually heard what they were talking about, but James was unimpressed.

"Oh yeah, and a yellow one too," James added.

Dumbledore mumbled something that Lily thought sounded suspiciously like "damaged goods." And she suppressed a shocked giggle.

"I am sorry I was unable to be here for the past few days. I wanted you two to come so I could give you the password to the head dormitories."

"COOL!" James shouted. "Where were you?"

Dumbledore sighed. "Well, attacks are increasing and the Minister merely wished to consult me. That is all. Follow me and I will show you the way to the dorms."

Lily was quiet as she followed, but James, who was accustomed to being around Dumbledore, couldn't stop talking.

"But there must have been more than just consultation. I mean if he wanted just to talk to you he could have flooed you or something." James persisted.

Lily thought Dumbledore would be upset with James' audacity, but to her surprise, he smiled.

"How perceptive of you Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said. "This way if you please."

"You're avoiding my question!" James said indignantly.

"James, I cannot answer your question. It is highly classified information that I am not at liberty to disclose."

"Why? You always try to tell us the truth. Why are you hiding information now?" James demanded.

Lily tried to shoot him a look to silence him, but it was no use.

"Have there been more attacks? Who's doing it?" James continued.

"And here is the entrance. You merely have to say 'super duper' to the Hogwarts seal, and…" The wall opened up revealing a beautifully decorated dorm that was similar to the Gryffindor dorm except it was smaller. James was rendered speechless as he stared at the scarlet and gold cushions and chairs.

"Meanwhile, you must return to class. Listen to me James, and you too, Miss Evans. There is a man who calls himself Lord Voldemort. He has been claiming responsibility for the recent deaths, but the Ministry rejects this information. I don't believe they want to accept the fact that we may have the rise of a Dark Lord in our hands. You are the Head Boy and Girl for a reason—because you are bright, capable and determined. However at the moment, I ask you _not_ to disclose any information concerning Voldemort and to focus on your studies. Perhaps it may not be long before it is no longer available to people." Dumbledore added grimly and Lily and James stared in horror at him. "I'll leave you here." He said and walked away.

Lily and James stood in front of their Transfiguration classroom looking at each other before Lily cleared her throat and pushed open the door.

"Let's go." She said quietly and turned to go inside without waiting for an answer.

James stood motionless momentarily before he followed her inside and took his seat next to Sirius. McGonagall nodded in their direction, knowing that they had been with Dumbledore and said with indifference, "Mr. Potter, Miss Evans, we are on page 54."

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After class, James and Lily told their friends everything about their own head dorms, but neither mentioned Voldemort. Lily glanced at James and wondered if he would break the news, but he didn't.

"That's amazing!" Peter said admiringly.

"You guys can come there now, we might as well hang out before we have Potions." Lily suggested.

"Okay!" Everyone said a little too eagerly.

"Where is Sirius?" James asked. Sirius wasn't with them when they left Transfiguration.

"Oh, he blew up McGonagall's desk this morning while you were off with Dumbledore." Remus said casually.

"That little…"

"So he's getting detention right now probably." Peter said.

James frowned like a petulant child and they all laughed. When they reached the Hogwarts seal, Lily said "super duper" and they walked inside.

"About bloody time!"

They all turned to see Sirius lounging on one of the chairs eating cake.

"Sirius! How did you… what… I thought you had to talk to McGonagall!" James said huffily.

Sirius smiled. "Yup. Detention next week! Woohoo!" He waved a slip above his head proudly and then catching the look of disappointment on James' face, said hopefully, "Cake?"

"Okay!" James grabbed the chocolate chunk from Sirius and wolfed it down.

"Where did you get it?" Lily asked.

"You have a private kitchen there," Sirius said.

"Speaking of which, how did you get here?" Amy asked.

Sirius smiled devilishly. "I dated the head girl last year, remember? The one with the hair…"

"No. The head girl was the one caked in lip-gloss. Hannah Norton was the one with the hair," James snapped and then gave a half-exasperated sigh. Sirius would always be Sirius. The other boy shrugged in a non-committal way.

Lily was running up the stairs to her room. It was furnished with handsome mahogany and the all the fabric in the room seemed to be made of silk and Egyptian cotton. Amy and Marsha entered soon after and stared in awe.

"Wow. Having all of this is almost worth all the effort." Amy said wistfully.

"Lily, look at this! You have your own small library!" Marsha said as she ran her fingers alone the spines of several reference books.

"It's so perfect." Lily said breathlessly before energetically running to the next room, which she was disappointed to find out, was just a closet.

"Oy Lily!" James was shouting. "Just come and look at our bathroom!"

The three girls peered out of the room and followed the sound of James' voice. There was a hallway connecting James and Lily's room that ran across the top of the dormitory. Looking over the banister, the girls could see the common room below.

"We have so many colored soaps!" James said in a tone so cheerful that Lily had to laugh. He acted like a five year old sometimes.

"Taps with bubbly water!" Sirius said as he fiddled with the handles.

"Yeah they have that for the prefect bathrooms." Remus and Marsha said while Lily nodded.

"Pink bubbles! Blue bubbles! Green bubbles!" Sirius was now belting out a song of his own creation while Peter was trying to speak. "Purple bubbles and Orange bubbles toooo!"

"SIRIUS SHUT UP!" Peter smacked Sirius across the head just as Sirius was saying, "Brown bubbles!!"

"Ow. That hurt. Thanks a bunch Pete."

"Well I'm sorry, but if you'd let me speak, I'd be able to point out that Potions starts in 5 minutes."

There was a moment of complete silence before 7 people frantically rushed for the exit.

"Oh shit we're gonna be late." Amy said all the while singing, "shit shit shit" repeatedly.

"This way!" James was sprinting down a corridor as fast as he could with Sirius next to him. Remus and Amy followed, but Peter, Marsha and Lily, being less athletic (as they didn't play Quidditch) struggled to keep up.

Four minutes later, James, Sirius, Remus and Amy burst into Potions completely winded and sat down in their seats trying to look innocent through their gasps for breath.

"Where are Pete and Lily and Marsha?" Remus asked, looking around. The other three looked around and to their dismay, they were missing their friends.

"Uh oh. That's not good." Amy said. "Marsha and Lily are pretty bad with directions."

"So is Pete." James said hesitantly. "But I'm sure they won't be lost…"

Right on cue Lily, Marsha and Peter burst into the class with Lily shouting triumphantly, "I knew this was the way!"

"Miss Evans." Professor Wharton drawled with disapproval. "May I inquire as to why you and your two friends are late to my class and then choose to disrupt it with such a loud intrusion?"

Lily blushed. "Professor Wharton, I… we…" she realized that she didn't have a valid excuse and finished meekly "we got lost."

The Potion's professor clicked his tongue and sat softly. "Take a seat, and if this happens again, you will be given a detention."

Lily, Marsha and Peter nodded glumly and quickly sat down. Lily exhaled. Professor Wharton was generally a fair teacher, although he tended to have mood swings and if caught on a bad day, the punishment for being late could have resulted in something much more severe.

------

"Alright listen up!" James called out to a group of anxious looking Gryffindors. "As you probably already know, we have two empty positions on the team this year that need to be filled: Keeper and Chaser."

Pale scarlet and gold figures shifted uncomfortably and a few of them nodded confidently.

"Right so, tell Sirius your name, what year you're in, what other clubs you participate in, and if you think you know what position you want to try out for, tell him that too." James announced.

Sirius suddenly became flustered as a mass of students crowded around him all pointing to the list he had in his hands and shouting out their names.

"OY! Quiet!" Sirius shouted, holding up his hands. There was a hushed silence. "Okay. ONE BY ONE you will come up to me and tell me all that crap James just said, and if you start to crowd around me like that again, don't even think about trying out!" Sirius looked around menacingly at them.

"You think he's allowed to do that?" Remus asked James.

"Eh whatever, at least they'll cooperate with him now."

After Sirius had all the information, the Quidditch hopefuls flew with the team, rapidly soaring across the field and then began to do perform various moves as James surveyed them critically. Amy, Sirius, Remus, and a Gryffindor 4th year, Milo, watched on.

"Next year is going to suck." Milo said. "You guys will all be gone. We'll lose 4 members!"

Amy nodded. "Yeah, good luck with that."

Milo shook his head. "I don't know how we're gonna replace the 4 of you."

"That's because we're the fantastic 4!" Sirius said, using the term their previous Quidditch captain had coined.

"You'll probably be captain for 3 years." Remus said.

"What a headache. I'll have to train a team full of amateurs."

"Hey! What are you guys just doing hovering there?" James shouted. "Just because you're already on the team does not mean you're exempt from tryouts! Start doing drills!"

The other four groaned and began to toss a Quaffle back and forth rigorously.

"James runs this team like the military," Amy muttered.

"No kidding," Remus said as he lightly caught the Quaffle.

"Oof!" Sirius failed the catch the Quaffle and quickly flew to catch it before it hit the ground and before—

"Sirius! How could you drop that! It was a perfectly thrown ball!" James shouted with his back to them, still watching tryouts.

"How does he always know?" Sirius said in a hushed tone so that James couldn't hear and then responded in a louder voice, "James, I'm a bloody Beater, I don't need to be able to catch a Quaffle!"

James chose not to respond, he just shouted a few encouraging phrases to motivate the other Gryffindors, who were now sweating and fatigued.

Finally, when everyone except James seemed to be so tired that they couldn't even sit up straight on their brooms anymore, James blew the whistle and allowed everyone to leave.

Milo, Remus, Sirius and Amy hung around to help him put away the balls and make a decision.

"What do you think?" James asked anxiously. "You were watching, right?"

"Relax, James. Of course we were!" Milo said reassuringly.

"How about that Annette girl?" Sirius said jokingly.

"Sirius!" James said, completely missing the sarcasm, "She was horrible! She couldn't even—"

"James! He was kidding!" Remus said quickly before James began to verbally abuse Sirius.

"Right…" James said sheepishly.

"Well for Chaser," Amy said diplomatically, "I think Stephanie Vitre was good."

"Really? You think?" Sirius said with surprise.

"I didn't really see anything special about her," James admitted. "I actually thought Travis Kilmer was the best."

The others nodded but Amy shook her head.

"No, Travis isn't good. Did you see his form? He's a good flyer, but his technique is horrible. Stephanie, on the other hand, has great technique and a good attitude. She'll definitely improve with every practice, while Travis won't be able to go anywhere. He's pretty much reached the peak of his flying capability as long as he maintains that grip and style."

The others looked doubtful at first, but then again, they knew that even though Amy was eccentric, she still tended to be right.

"I'm sure we could help Travis with his form…" James said skeptically, but Amy quickly shot that down.

"No James, Travis has been flying for a while, its hard to get someone to change their style after they've been doing it a certain way for a long time."

Sirius nodded. "Yeah, I think Amy's right. Come to think of it, Stephanie was really quiet, but she was a really clean flyer."

"She flies like you guys do," Remus added. "It'll be really good for teamwork with the Chasers."

Amy smiled and turned to James, who nodded.

"Okay, you have me convinced."

"Keeper?" Milo asked.

"Frank Longbottom," they all responded simultaneously and then broke into grins.

"Great, we're done then," James said with satisfaction.

----------

"How were Quidditch tryouts?" Lily asked as she watched James stride into the common room.

He turned and smiled at her.

"Didn't see you there. They were great!"

"Who made it?"

"Can't tell you that. Guess you're going to have to find out with everyone else tomorrow morning on the bulletin board in the Gryffindor Common Room." James said devilishly and then ran upstairs to the bathroom to take a shower.

Lily was still smiling after the door closed; she couldn't seem to stop doing that when she was with James.

Theres this little button in the bottom left hand corner that allows you to review this crazy author's work...


	5. The Shortest Chapter of Them ALL

Chapter 5- The Shortest Chapter of Them ALL

(For a lack of a better title)

"Cow! A cow!" Amy shouted at the top of her lungs. Sirius shook his head vigorously.

"No I'm not a cow!"

"Sirius! We're playing charades,for that last time, you cannot talk!!" Lily snapped.

Sirius smiled apologetically, "Ah, sorry about that Lily dear. Slips my mind sometimes."

"Lily dear?" James asked him.

"Actually, my name's Sirius. But that girl there with the red hair—her name is Lily," Sirius responded.

"Okay my turn!" Peter said and he walked up to the middle of the common room in the Heads' Dorm. After carefully removing a slip of paper from a bowl placed on the coffee table, he proceeded to flap his arms.

"Bird!" Everyone shouted, while Amy said, "Windmill!"

They looked at her strangely and turned back to Peter. Who was nodding and then put his arms above his head in an upside-down V.

"Rocket!" Amy said jumping up and down. Sirius pulled her back down so he could see.

"Nope. Not rocket!" James said, "Bird house!"

Peter nodded and sat down.

"But I thought rocket…" Amy mused, not realizing she had landed on Sirius, who was smiling cheekily.

"Amy, you're sitting on the vortex of death." Lily said sarcastically, and Amy looked down.

"Oops!" She hopped up and sat on the ground as if it was nothing out of the ordinary while Sirius said "Hey!" indignantly.

"It's true," Remus said, "All the girls who have sat on that lap end up dumped or worse."

"Worse?" Marsha asked.

"In bed with Sirius," James explained, wrinkling his nose.

"Gross!" Amy said.

"Hey! You guys! That's not nice. You can't discuss my love life behind my back!" Sirius said, faking a pout.

"Sirius, we're not discussing it behind your back." Lily pointed out.

"And you love the fact that you've bedded so many girls." Peter added.

"ANYWAY—" James interrupted, trying to change the subject, "It's midnight; we should go to bed."

"But daddy, it's not even a school night," Sirius protested in his annoying baby voice.

"I'm with James. Good night guys," Lily said and she headed upstairs.

"Yeah, I think I'm gonna go to bed too," Marsha said and Amy nodded in agreement.

"Party poopers!" Sirius frowned.

"Shut up Sirius," Peter yawned and he went upstairs to bring down blankets so he could sleep on the couch. Remus did the same, while Sirius declared that he was sleeping in James' room, which was met with a groan from James.

15 minutes later, James was lying in his comfortable bed thinking about a certain red headed girl who had really become a friend to him. _There aren't many girls who are fun and not all giggly_. He thought before rolling over and shutting his eyes. The silence enveloped him and he was drifting off to sleep…

"Hey James?"

James moaned and rolled back over.

"What?" He hissed at Sirius who was sleeping on the ground.

"They're really different."

"Who?"

"Amy, Lily and Marsha. They don't blush and look at their shoes when they're with us."

"I know that."

There was silence and James finally thought he was going to sleep.

"Hey James?"

"Mfft," James mumbled tiredly. Sirius ignored it.

"You think Amy would…"

"Would what?"

"Never mind."

"You like Amy now?" James said with surprise.

"Yeah I think."

"She's not…"

"The most gorgeous person in the world, I know," Sirius said, reading James' thoughts.

"Hey Sirius," James sat up and looked at his best friend seriously, "Don't screw around with Amy. She's ahh, liable to kick your ass if you treat her like every other girl."

Sirius smiled. "I know."

A/N: This story is getting weirder by the minute, even the author is most surprised and unaware of where the plot will turn next. But isn't that just the way things are with life?!!!


	6. Secrets Over Breakfast

Chapter 6- Secrets over Breakfast

"Amy, not that one!" Marsha reprimanded the brunette as she plucked the spatula from Amy's hands.

"Sorry," Amy said bouncing on the ball of her feet and looking over Marsha's shoulder as she scrambled eggs.

"Amy," Marsha sighed, "Do you think maybe, you could not hover over me like that?"

"Right-o! I'll just get a pitcher of milk and orange juice!"

She came back and stood next to Marsha.

"Hey Marsh," Amy said hesitantly. Marsha looked up. Amy almost never sounded so worried.

"You know Lily…"

"Yes I think so," Marsha said sarcastically.

"I think she might like James," Amy whispered even though no one else was in the kitchen.

Marsha nearly dropped the pan.

"What makes you think so?" she asked, trying to stay calm.

"Well last night. I've never seen her be so happy and she kept looking at him…"

Marsha smiled. Of all the things Amy was, her predominant trait was how surprising she could be.

"Yeah I think so. I've noticed it too."

--------

Lily rolled over and glanced at the clock on her wall. It read 10:20. She stared and then sat up abruptly, her heart racing. She didn't say anything, but if thoughts could be heard, Lily Evans would be screaming: _I missed Transfiguration!_

She cursed and got up before sinking back down. It was Saturday.

"Great, I'm a genius," she muttered before heading downstairs. The kitchen door was closed, but there was the unmistakable sound of food being fried. She walked over and pushed open the swinging door.

"Do you think he—"

"HI LILY!" Marsha interrupted Amy with a loud and forced voice.

"Uh hi," Lily said suspiciously. She was going to ask what they were talking about when there were groans heard from the next room. Remus and Peter stumbled in yawning.

"You can be pretty darn loud when you want to Marsha," Remus remarked sleepily.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you…"

"Ah its ok," Peter interjected quickly before Marsha began to say "sorry" repeatedly. She had such a propensity to do so. "Smells good. What are you making?"

"Well, so far, all we have are eggs and bacon," Amy said.

Remus walked over and looked into the pan. "Could use a little bit of salt," he said expertly. "You don't mind, do you?" he gestured at the saltshaker.

"Not at all," Marsha said, trying to conceal her surprise. Remus began to sprinkle salt and picked up the spatula.

"Remus' mom taught him to cook," Peter explained, and the girls looked impressed.

"You're better than I am, Remus," Lily laughed.

Remus smiled, "Well my mom is an amazing cook. Hey Peter," he turned to the other boy, "can you go down to the kitchens and get some pastries or whatever? This won't hold with James and Sirius' appetites."

-------------

A quarter of an hour later, breakfast was neatly placed on the coffee table in the common room and the five Gryffindors sat there talking and wondering when James and Sirius would wake up. However, they didn't need to wait long because soon they heard Sirius' voice through the bedroom.

"RISE AND SHINE MUFFIN!"

Lily, Amy and Marsha raised their eyebrows but Remus and Peter, who had started eating, continued, unsurprised. There was a moment of silence before a splash of water could be heard.

"SIRIUS BLACK!"

Sirius scuttled out of the room and ran downstairs.

"Help! He's a madman!"

James ran down stairs, his pajamas drenched and proceeded to chase Sirius through the room. They ran for five straight minutes, until Remus shouted, "DO YOU WANT BREAKFAST?" Both boys froze and looked at the food on the table and calmly sat down.

James ate sitting across from Sirius, his eyes glaring menacingly, and breakfast was eaten in silence.

Lily cleared her throat and broke the silence. "So what are we doing today?"

"We've still got Transfiguration and DADA homework," Marsha answered, still looking back and forth between Sirius and James.

"And we have a Prefect meeting at 8," Remus added, as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

"And Quidditch at 3," Amy reminded.

Sirius and James continued to stare at each other.

"Alright well—"

"YOU BLINKED!" James shouted pointing an accusing finger at Sirius.

"Didn't! Didn't! DID NOT! DID NOT!" Sirius whined, putting his hands over his ears and shaking his head.

"Yes! Yes you did! I WIN!" James turned to Remus for support, but the other boy just held his hands up and begged to be left out of it.

"I WON!" James danced around the room.

"Well, James wets the bed at night. LOOK! His PJ's are all wet!"

"That's because you poured ice cold water on me, moron!"

James looked threateningly at Sirius and then chased him into his room, where they heard an undeniable bark.

"Is that a dog?" Lily asked.

"Ahhh," Remus shifted uncomfortably. "I… don't think so," He said lamely.

The girls looked at each other and then walked up stairs toward James' room.

"I SOLEMNLY SWEAR I AM UP TO NO GOOD!" Peter shouted and the barking almost immediately ceased. The girls turned around to look at him, surprised. When the proceeded into the room, they found James and Sirius playing with a brown dog.

The boys looked up innocently.

"You should knock," James scolded.

"What's going on?" Lily said, unconvinced.

"This is Sparky. He's Sirius'."

"Dogs aren't allowed in school," Marsha said.

"Right, that's why we hide him."

"Uh huh."

The girls looked skeptical, but they didn't get another explanation, so they left the room.

-----------------

"You idiots our entire—everything would have been in danger! Fooling around in your Animagi forms!" Remus hissed at James and Sirius. Sirius looked up and gave a guilty smile.

"Sorry!—But I sooo won that battle."

"Let's go to practice," Remus said angrily.

Five seconds later, he turned around, "Where exactly did you get the dog?" he asked brightly. Remus could never stay angry with anyone for long.

"Ahh!" James looked up brightly, "I transfigured him from Snuffles," he said, referring to Sirius' stuffed animal.

"Brilliant!" Remus remarked as Sirius grinned sheepishly.

A/N: Stranger things have happened... I received a device recently, that functions as a clock, calculator, radio and alarm. Talk about multitasking!


	7. Quidditch and MORE Secrets

Chapter 7- Quidditch and MORE Secrets (When will the madness end?!)

Peter walked alongside Marsha and Lily, who had rather hesitantly agreed to go watch the Gryffindor Quidditch practice. James' ruthless drilling habits were notorious.

"Come on guys, let's move it!" James bellowed across the pitch as seven scarlet figures sped up, racing back and forth around the rings at both ends of the fields.

"We need to be faster than this if we're going to beat Slytherin!" He screamed again, unsatisfied with the increased pace. Groans could be heard even 20 feet away.

"Wow. Uh, James is really…" Lily searched for a word, "passionate about Quidditch."

"No reason to obscure the truth," Peter laughed at her euphemism, "He's freaking insane."

The girls laughed and nodded. For the next half hour, they watched James relentlessly drilling and lecturing his teammates. Regardless of how good they were, in James' eyes, perfection was still the goal.

"Right so how about we play a little 4 on 4?" James said.

"Yeah James, the only problem is, we only have 7 people," Amy said sarcastically.

"Well maybe Pete will play," James said while Amy and Milo groaned.

"Please James! Anyone but Peter!"

"Yeah, no offense, but he always doesn't look at where he's going and it's a major handicap to the team he's on." Amy pointed out.

"Fine…"

"Hey!" Sirius looked over at the stands, seeing Marsha and Lily sitting there. "How about one team takes Pete, and the other takes Lily and Marsha? We could even it out… sort of."

Amy shrugged. "Marsha's pretty good actually and so is Lily. We play over the summer."

"Great!" James approached the three spectators. "Will you guys play with us?" He asked brightly.

Peter, Lily and Marsha looked at each other hesitantly.

"Uh… we're not that good," Lily said.

"Well that's okay. I just want to let my new chaser and keeper experience a pseudo-real game."

"No no no!" Peter said. "James you know how bad I am!"

"It's okay! You can be with Sirius, Milo, Remus, Steph and Frank. Lily and Marsha will be with me, and Amy. It's even that way. You guys will have 2 extra players." James looked at them hopefully. Eventually, the three reluctant Gryffindors followed him to the pitch where the team members had three brooms waiting for them.

"They're our extras so be careful with them." Milo said, grinning.

All 10 players rose up in the air and assumed their positions. Lily was playing Keeper, Marsha was Seeker and Peter was Chaser. The game turned out to be a brutal battle. With James on their team, Marsha and Lily were perpetually terrified that they might be the victims of one of his sermons. Fortunately for them, James didn't pick on them and instead focused on the Gryffindor team, even if they weren't on his 4-vs.-6 team.

"Milo I want to see you hit that Bludger at me with better aim!" James called to Milo, who looked over at him and made a mock-salute.

"Hey good job Lily! You're a really good Keeper, should have tried out for the team!" James said as he whizzed by her and she blushed. By now, she had self-diagnosed herself with the horrible disease of love. She couldn't help but feel exhilarated in James' presence and right now, she was at the height of her game, none of which failed to be noted by Marsha.

"Bloody Snitch is the size of a pinpoint." Marsha muttered as she hovered by Lily, frantically searching the field. Remus flew over lazily.

"Tough find today." He said, as his eyes continued to dart about the field.

"No kidding. I don't know how you can do this all the time." Marsha said.

"Oh trust me, it's not always fun." Remus then flew away and Marsha, deciding she wasn't going to find the Snitch on her own, tailed him. Remus turned and glanced at Marsha, who was barely keeping up with him. He slowed and smiled.

"You're stalking me."

Marsha smiled easily, "No I'm just following you. Incessantly."

Remus opened his mouth, but before he could utter a sound, he was interrupted. "REMUS! This is a practice, not some pick-up game! Why are you stationary? Throw off your damn opposition!! The Slytherin seeker isn't going to cakewalk with you!" James swerved angrily around them, clutching the Quaffle in his arm tightly.

"Yes ma'am." Remus grinned and shrugged apologetically to Marsha. Before she could respond, he had pulled into a deep dive and zoomed off to the other side of the field. She sighed and decided she might as well devote her time to stare into the bleak sky.

-------------

Lily stared at James as he gracefully whizzed to the other goal and assisted Amy in a goal before swerving rapidly to deflect the Chasers of the other team. Why did this have to happen to her now? She was nearly done with her schooling, and as soon as she graduated, she could have started to look for a boyfriend… but with approaching NEWTS and Head Girl duties, she really didn't want to waste any extra time on getting her heart broken.

------------

"Remus, you better bloody catch that Snitch!" James screamed at Remus, even though he was on the other team. When Remus finally did, James calmed down and let everyone descend to the ground.

"Great practice guys! We're definitely going to win!" James said, as he glared at his team, defying them to think otherwise. "Oh," he said offhandedly, "Thanks you three for helping us out. You're actually pretty good. _Might even be able to replace one of these lazy members._" James added; just for good measure.

-----------

Lily trudged to the Head Room and took a 20-minute shower, finally feeling the circulation in her body again, after being wind-beaten on the Quidditch field for nearly 3 hours.

"LILLYYY!" James banged on the door and whined. "You're not the only one who needs that shower, you know!"

She hurried out and reminded him about the Prefect meeting later that night, before blushing at realizing that she was staring at his half naked body.

"Must he just wear a towel when he goes to take a shower?" Lily muttered before changing and rushing to take out her unfinished DADA homework.

"Ahh… that one's C." James said, pointing down on the multiple-choice problem Lily had been struggling with.

"Weren't you going to take a shower?" Lily asked.

"I did."

"Already? It's been like… 5 minutes."

"I'm fast. Like lightning. Except—faster. And without the cliché." James grinned and sat down next to her, placing his Transfiguration homework down on the table.

"That one's a killer." Lily said, referring to the Transfiguration worksheet, but 10 minutes later, James had accomplished what Lily had in 40 minutes.

"Damn Transfiguration freak." She muttered before dipping her quill into the ink and circling the last answer on her DADA homework.

James grinned cheekily. "I like to refer to it as 'Amazing Talent that would Rival Merlin's'."

"That conceit is going to get to you one day, Hercules."

"Ahh so you do think I'm roguishly handsome and buff." James said, mockingly flexing his biceps.

"No I meant Hercules was often overly self-centered and… Oh never mind." Lily said, noting that James was still trying to flex his biceps properly.

"Well, I tried." He looked up cheerily. "Dinner? What say you?"

Lily raised an eyebrow at his strange word order and said, "Yes Master Yoda."

"Yoda?" James looked utterly confused.

"It's this muggle movie, and there's a three-feet, shriveled up, green, pointy-eared master named Yoda." Lily tried to explain without going into great detail.

James gave a bewildered laugh and then stated, "I liked it better when you called me buff."

"I did not call you buff! I said you were conceited!"

"Yes, but in your head, you knew that you were calling me madly sexy." He turned to grin at Lily before ducking instinctively to avoid being walloped in the head. Redheads had a short fuse.

Later that night, Lily decided to let Amy and Marsha sleep over again, after they had finished all their homework. Helping Amy set her pillow on the conjured bed in the corner, Marsha turned and said pointedly, "So Lily, anything you want to take about? You know… girly stuff like _crushes_."

Lily picked up on the emphasis, but continued innocently, "Since when have we been into girly stuff?"

"Well you know, I just figured, now's a good time as any to discuss something we rarely touch upon." Marsha continued tactfully.

"Okay… well Jenna Heffer so likes Mark."

"Yeah… did you know your hair was red, too?" Marsha rolled her eyes. "I mean like something more… personal."

"Like what?"

"LIKE JAMES!" Amy shouted, before been muffled by Marsha.

Lily felt her face growing hot and she looked at her two friends.

"How… long?"

"Well we talked about it this morning." Marsha said hesitantly. She was in her last year at Hogwarts, and she didn't favor suffering the wrath of Lily Evans after completing nearly 7 years of homework.

"Oh." Lily looked downcast and sat on her bed.

"So, you wanna talk about it?" Amy said softly, recovering from her previous outburst.

"I don't know why. I'm probably being stupid." Lily said quietly. "I mean, I've never really… well I mean, I've had brief spells, but it's never this bad or for so long…"

"It's bound to happen sometime," Marsha added comfortingly.

"At 17? Love? It's not possible," Lily said half hopefully.

"Sure it is, my parents fell in love at 16," Amy said.

"I'm probably… it's probably an illusion or something. I mean, James is just… one of the few decent guys I've ever met in this place," Lily said, as her two best friends nodded.

"Along with Remus and occasionally Sirius," Marsha grinned.

"Why the coy grin?" The redhead's face snapped up, "Marsha… are you saying that…"

"What?" Marsha started turning red too, and bit her tongue, bitterly wishing she hadn't added on that sentence about Remus.

"You like Remus?" Amy exclaimed. "Man! What is it with those boys!"

"Don't tell me you haven't liked Sirius since 3rd grade when you got on the Quidditch team," Lily rolled her eyes, exposing a long and well-kept suspicion of hers.

"Well…" Amy sighed, "Nothing will happen… Sirius is Sirius."

The other two nodded sympathetically and spent the rest of the night talking about something they had never endeavored to talk about before—boys.

A/N: Reviewing is a mighty good thing to do. Sorry about the pairing... 3 best friends in love with 3 best friends... I'll try not to do it ever again! (if I ever write another fan fic)


	8. Gryffindor vs Slytherin

Chapter 8- Gryffindor vs. Slytherin

Lily, Marsha and Amy entered the Great Hall, amidst great chatter and excitement.

"I take it they've noticed the sign about the Ball in two weeks," Lily said sarcastically.

"Never understood what the hype was about. All you do is get your hair done and trot around the dance floor like an idiot," Marsha said.

"But they do have great juice!" Amy added, while the other two rolled their eyes.

"You know, if you keep rolling your eyes at me, those pretty little things will be stuck like that… perpetually turning in circles… around and around and around…" Amy said sardonically.

"Too late," Lily muttered as the three girls took a seat at the breakfast table.

-------------

The rest of the week passed uneventfully, with all the 7th years finding that their desks were soon piled up with work and other activities. James seemed crushed with all the work he had to do, along with Head Boy duties, Quidditch practice and squeezing in a few pranks to pull ahead of Sirius in the detention race. Lily, of course, was thrilled every time she got to spend time with him, although she would be damned to admit it.

As Saturday approached, the whole school was excited about the upcoming events. The first Hogsmeade trip was to take place on Saturday, and the first Quidditch game was to take place the next morning.

----------------

"Hate dress robes." Amy said as she eyed a rack of long, flowing gowns.

"Get scantier every year, don't they?" Lily said, raising her eyebrows at the low-cut pink dress in the corner.

"Well. Those designers need to save money on cloth," Marsha said mock-patronizingly.

"Right then. Let's get this over with, shall we?" Lily said, as she approached a group of dresses in her size and ripped off the ones that caught her eye.

After spending a mere half an hour trying on different dress robes, the three girls settled for dresses that they would be wearing to the ball next week.

"Well thank God we got that over with," said Marsha, who completely dreaded shopping in malls, and fitting rooms even more.

Lily peeked at her dress in the paper bag she was holding and looked up wistfully, trying hard not to think about James. This did not go unnoticed by either Marsha or Amy, but neither chose to comment.

"Three Broomsticks?" Amy suggested, her teeth chattering. The other two nodded mutely.

They squeezed into the packed pub and found an empty table at the back, which coincidentally, was next to the Marauders'.

"Hey you three," Remus smiled. "Dress robes?" He said, nodding at the parcels they held.

Marsha wrinkled her nose and replied, "Unfortunately."

Remus laughed appreciatively, while Sirius wiggled his eyebrows and said, "So you charming ladies know whom you're going with?"

"Nope," Lily said, shrugging.

"Ahh well stagging it is very in this season," Sirius said, knowledgeably, while the rest of the Gryffindors just stared at him. "My mother," Sirius muttered.

"The very same who made him get ballet lessons. Very in that season too," James said matter-of-factly, while the others burst out laughing.

"Mock me now, but one of these days James Potter, your life will depend on a dance-off and you will regret having not taken ballet lessons!"

"In what stage of hell do they require a dance off?" James asked.

"Idiotic bastard."

"What was that?"

"Uh, Nice plastered. Walls," Sirius finished lamely and pointed at the wooden walls of the Three Broomsticks. Realizing his sentence didn't make sense, he quickly added, "In the dorms."

The other 6, having not understood what he said the first time, but having a relatively good idea, just shook their heads and ignored him.

"SO HOW ABOUT THAT QUIDDITCH GAME TOMORROW?" Sirius continued in an overly loud voice, before realizing that he had made yet another mistake.

"We better win!" James said, with Amy backing him up enthusiastically. And with that simple sentence, they were off. For the next ten minutes, James and Amy talked quickly and excitedly about their game tomorrow against Slytherin, with the others just looking into their mugs glumly.

After a few more minutes, Lily cut in with a voice dripping with sarcasm, "I note that only two people are talking."

"Good observation, Lils," James said, before turning to Amy and continuing his statement about the trick play they had invented a few days before.

Lily shut up, her heart leaping with the nickname.

----------

The Quidditch stands the next day, were packed. Lily, Marsha, and Peter barely managed to find seats that weren't obscured by overly large poles or people.

"Well let's hope Gryffindor wins," Peter said.

"Why would we hope otherwise?" Marsha asked, confused.

"We wouldn't. But I, personally, can't stand an angered James," Peter said gazing at the doors from which the players entered the field.

"Ditto to that," Lily said, although for slightly different reasons.

"And heeereee they come!" The announcer was Edmond Thurton, whose insanity rivaled that of Sirius', but only at select moments. It was hard to maintain that constant level of craziness.

"AND OH MY GOD! I'VE JUST RECEIVED NEWS THAT SLYTHERIN IS FORFEITING BECAUSE THEY KNOW THEY CANNOT POSSIBLY WIN THIS GAME!" Thurton screamed into his microphone. All the students froze, completely surprised, when the Slytherin team took the field, looking disgruntled. "Oh haha. My little joke." Thurton said meekly as the Slytherin fans glared at him murderously.

"Of course, here's the Fabulous Four! Captain and Chaser James Potter, Amy Huntsford, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin!! Not to mention their three other great teammates, Milo Hamilton and newcomers Frank Longbottom and Stephanie Vitre!!" Edmond's arm swerved in a huge arc with every name he mentioned. "Oh… and those green blobs down there are the Slytherin team." He added offhandedly. As a Ravenclaw 6th year, Edmond cared little about the Slytherin house.

The game took of quickly, and Gryffindor, due to their superior training and practice, easily took the lead, with James leading the team, both numerically and spiritually.

"That's it guys! Nice and easy! BUT DON'T BE NICE TO THEM! We want to clobber them! We don't want to be nice and easy to them!" James shouted irrationally during a team timeout.

"Chill James. We know what you mean," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"We've done this tons of times, we've got this James," Stephanie said assuredly.

Sure enough, the game had lasted less than 15 minutes, when Remus caught the Snitch, and Gryffindor won the game by nearly 250 points.

"That was the fastest game in history!" Amy said happily, looking over at the frowning Slytherins. But then again, the Slytherins were always frowning.

James ran into the locker room and then sprinted up to the common room, ready to celebrate with the rest of his house.

"LILY! WE WON!" James shouted, overcome with glee and he picked her up and easily swung her in a circle before bouncing around.

"Whadya think? Awesome, eh?"

"Yes James, although next time, you should warn me before you decide to treat me like a Quaffle," Lily said, unable to keep a huge smile off her face.

"I throw Quaffles, not spin them around. Unless of course you'd like to…"

"No… really. That's more than I can handle," Lily said, holding up her hands to discourage him. "I'm probably pretty heavy too," Lily said, just for persuasion's sake.

"No you're not!" James said quickly, but then changed his mind, "I mean, yes you are, but I'm just BUFF!" He then turned around and ran to the center of the room, screaming "WE WON" while waving his arms over his head like a maniac.

If craziness were contagious... Sirius would cause a worldwide epidemic.

That thought just occurred to me, and I felt the undeniable desire to share it with you.


	9. Nerve Wrecked Marauders

Chapter 9- Nerve Wrecked Marauders

Over the course of the next week, Lily began to notice that the four boys were getting more distant and strange, but she didn't comment, assuming it was just related to some test or prank. Early Tuesday morning, Lily walked into the Great Hall and spotted the four boys hunched over whispering seriously to each other. When she approached them, they broke off awkwardly.

"Er—Hi Lily! Beautiful morning today!" James said in an overly loud voice.

"It's raining, James."

"RIGHT! That it is! Very observant, you are. I just meant that… Rain is great!"

"I'm glad," Lily said sarcastically. "So what are you guys up to? You're usually not up this early..."

At this, the four looked relieved and broke into easy smiles.

"That, Lily dear, is just what you will find out!" Sirius said exuberantly, in a voice that made Lily groan.

"You're pranking on the Slytherins again? Have you no pity?"

"Yes we do. A considerable amount in fact. The poor shirts that are stained with food, the books that are dropped carelessly on the ground, the Slytherin wands that are rendered useless…" Remus lamented.

"Not to mention the food that was thrown. That was some good spaghetti that was wasted!" Peter added. Lily sighed. Talking sense to these boys was talking to the devil (that once wore a pink tutu).

As soon as Lily abandoned the boys to find her friends, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter resumed their conversation.

"I am so dead," Remus moaned.

"You'll be fine! We've gone over this a million times! You just approach her and say, hey…are you going to the ball? Because if you're not, I'd love to go with you," Sirius said proudly.

"Yes, our well-versed dater." James rolled his eyes.

"At least you guys have someone in mind," Peter said, "I'm not even sure I can get a date."

"Oh come on Pete…" The boys lapsed into a round of compliments aimed at the short boy.

----------------------------------------

The next day, Marsha walked into the Head Room along with Amy, who was barely keeping up. Practically running into a startled Lily, Marsha led the other two into a room and closed to the door.

"Oh my God!" Marsha muttered, "I'm crazzyyy…"

"I hardly doubt that's possible," Lily said, completely confused.

"Just tell me what happened," Amy begged.

"Something happened? What happened?" Lily asked.

"Tell us!"

"Remus. The quill. Stupid, stupid, stupid."

"What's this now?" Lily inquired, her interest mounting.

"Ohhh I'm an idiot!" Marsha sat on the bed hopelessly and looked up at her friends.

"After Potions, Remus started to talk to me in the hallway… and he was mentioning the ball and he asked me go to with him," Marsha's face was swelling with heat and blood; Lily wondered if it was possible that she would burst with embarrassment.

"That's so exciting!" Amy said, shocked.

"Right…" Marsha composed herself. "I… I… sort of was halfway through saying yes, when I dropped my quill, and I bent down to grab it just as he was... and... we kind of collided."

Lily, in spite of herself, burst out laughing. Marsha whirled around and glared at her.

"Is... ishe okay?" Lily said meekly.

Marsha moaned. "No! I mean, he's okay I think… but he kinda… got knocked unconscious."

"Man! And I thought _I _was headstrong!" Lily laughed.

"Not. Helpful," Marsha forced through gritted teeth.

"Right sorry. Well I'm sure Madame Pomfrey can fix it. Anyway, I mean, this is so exciting! You're going to the ball with Remus!" Lily squealed.

"How is it possible to be halfway through saying 'Yes?'" Amy wondered, "I mean, it's a pretty short word… You couldn't be like 'Y—' … 'es'"

"Why did I tell you?" Marsha moaned.

"Because we're your best friends!" Lily said. "Really, this is exciting!"

"Y— es. I agree!" Amy said, (but only slightly mockingly).

Marsha sighed and then threw up her hands in frustration.

-------------------------------------

Remus groaned and rolled over in his bed. He sat up and then stared. He was in the hospital wing. Was it the full moon already? He couldn't remember and rubbed his head.

"HEY! HE'S AWAKE!!" came a loud yell from next to him.

"Ow Sirius, my ear…" Remus reprimanded.

"Hey Moony!!" James said, in a softer tone.

"Thought we lost you there," Peter said in a semi-serious tone.

"What happened?"

"You collided with Marsha? Remember? Madame Pomfrey had to conjure up a stretcher and march you up here," Sirius stated.

"I do believe you're the first person to ever suffer a mild concussion from a head butt," James grinned.

"I thought you were going to ask her to the ball," Peter asked, "Not beat her up WWF style."

"Yeah… I remember now… she dropped her quill and I bent down to get it just as she was," Remus said sheepishly.

"Smooth Remy, really, if we were all Remus Lupins, then there'd be no next generation. All our women would be lying on the ground with bumps on their heads," Sirius laughed.

"Why do I know you? And is Marsha okay?" Remus looked around the room.

"She's fine, just horrified. I do believe your beloved followed you up here, hysterically," James sniggered.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, my friends," Remus muttered.

"Well we're not so happy about the match-up either. Now we're at risk for a head injury, too," Peter added and Sirius high-fived him.

"Good one Pete!"

"You won't let this go, will you?" Remus pleaded, looking to James, who was being the most rational.

"Hey you've got tutu, and now I've got Remus—the brain cell destroyer," Sirius said triumphantly. "Forget alcohol, drugs, and hammers! If you want to stupefy someone…"

"WHY ARE YOU HARASSING HIM?" Madame Pomfrey shrieked as she walked into the room. "Not you boys again! Out! I thought I told you already!"

The three Gryffindors scuttled out of the room, each muttering an apology, not wanting to incur her wrath.

------------------------

A few short moments later, Marsha entered the room and approached Remus's bed, looking extremely uncomfortable.

"Hi," she said shakily.

"Hi."

"Um… are you better? I mean, oh my god you couldn't be… there's a bandage on your head! I am so so sorry! It was an accident I swear. I'll make it up to you. I really really really—"

"Marsha!" Remus laughed, "It's okay, I mean, I'm surprised you're okay though. You must have a thick skull."

"Yes it's one of my better traits," Marsha muttered, blushing.

"Along with excessive apologies?"

"Only if I'm divinely inspired."

There followed a slightly awkward silence before Marsha continued quickly.

"I'm not sure how much you remember…"

"Enough. I remember asking you to the ball," Remus averted his eyes.

"I said yes."

"I thought so. Although all I heard was a 'ye.' Never knew it was possible to split up the word 'yes.'" Remus responded, trying not to look awkward.

"Another one of my talents."

"Ahh, I'll have to keep a lookout for those. Must be many more."

"I wouldn't count on it." Marsha paused and blurt out, "Although, I can read and write."

"Always a plus," Remus nodded reasonably.

"WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT VISITORS?" Madame Pomfrey screamed as she ran back into the hospital room. She glared at a blushing Marsha, who commenced to give her excessive apologies.

----------------------------

"Sirius do it," James hissed as Sirius stared at Amy that night at dinner.

"I can't," Sirius muttered and glanced at his plate. He pushed his food around dejectedly. "What if she says no?"

"Since when are you scared of asking a girl out?"

"Since her!" Sirius pointed at her and then retracted his hand, hoping no one noticed. "Something's wrong with that girl. Illegal magic. Making me nervous."

"Sirius Black! You will ask that girl out by tomorrow," James scolded.

"But—"

"No but's! Or else," James eyes narrowed as he tried to think of a proper reason. There was a long silence, and Sirius stared blankly at James.

"Or what?"

"Er—You'll get no dinner!"

"What?"

"I mean! Or else—I'll ask her for you!" James said quickly.

"Can I go back to do the dinner option?" Sirius pleaded.

"Nope."

"You wouldn't! James—you wouldn't!! Then it'd… it'd… it's not fair!"

James folded his arms gleefully. "I win."

"Do not!"

"Tick tock, time's a-running out Sirius Black. Come tomorrow morning, if that girl has not rejected you yet—"

"Hey!"

"Better get to work on that speech," James resumed. "Or I'll have to," He added threateningly.

"Jamesie my friend of many years…"

"Got to go to a…a… Prefect meeting! Good luck lover boy!" James cut him off and ran.

"Damn Potter boy… I'll get him back…"

"What's this now?" Lily asked as she was passing by Sirius.

"Stupid Potter and his tricks."

"What'd he do now?"

Sirius looked up at Lily. "Ball business," he said evasively. To his amazement, he saw Lily avert her eyes and blush.

"Who's he asking?" She inquired off-handedly (except not really).

"I don't know…" Sirius narrowed his eyes.

"Oh… well… I should go. See ya Sirius!" Lily said hurrying away, as Sirius sat back in his seat and smiled joyfully.

--------

Review? Por favor?


	10. The Upcoming Ball

A/N: Alright-- So I miscalculated. Instead of this being the _last_ chapter, its the second to last. Either way, I'm almost done!! I know I haven't written many A/N's or thanked those who have reviewed, so I'll do that now!! I really do appreciate every review--- I read them all.

Chapter 10- The Upcoming Ball

"Four fifths," Lily ventured.

"Wrong!"

"Two thirds?"

"WRONG!"

"Three quarters?"

"FAILURE! FAILURE!" James sing-songed.

"Ugh. What is it then?"

"Twenty-two over twenty-three," James said all-knowingly.

"That's not fair! That's such an arbitrary number!" Lily protested.

"Hey missy. When has Potions ever been fair?"

"Twenty-two over twenty three cups of crushed beetles?" Lily asked

"Yes ma'am. I believe you're a winner now!"

"I am going to fail tomorrow," Lily said, exasperated.

"Well, instead of answering the free response questions, you could fill the space with juicy sentences about how much you _love_ Professor Wharton..."

"Very funny."

"And like oh my god!! The way you hold the chalk _Professor_... It makes my heart flutter!" James squealed.

"You're _so_ amusing," Lily said sarcastically.

"And when you dice those dried squids!!" James panted dramatically. "I can't breathe!!!!"

"Shut up James."

Sirius, obscured in the kitchen doorway, watched the two Gryffindors laugh.

"Love is in the aiirr…" He thought to himself.

Slowly, he approached Lily and James, who were huddled around the fire.

"Hey look it's a dog!" Lily pointed

"Oh yeah…" James' eyes narrowed as he recognized the black dog.

"Hey isn't this uh…" Lily searched for the name, as James alsofrantically tried to remember the name he had delegated to Sirius' pet dog.

"umm… Sirius' dog…" Lily glanced at James, who was staring at the ceiling in a nonchalant way and twiddling his thumbs.

"Sparky?" She said at last and James turned to face her.

"Sure!" He bit his lip. The shout came out so over-enthusiastic; he was surprised that Lily wasn't more suspicious.

"Awww so cute," Lily said, ruffling Sirius' hair.

"Erm. Quite. Hey Lily, do you mind if _I go get some food for this dog_?" James said, staring meaningfully at "Sparky."

"Okay."

"Come, Sparky," James beckoned as he advanced toward the kitchen.

"_Come, Sparky_," he said menacingly. "_Sparky_, if you don't come right now, there will be no bone for you!"

Sirius just sat and cocked his head to the side.

"Hey you know Lily, maybe you could some food for Sparky? I'm not really sure what to get…"

"Uh, sure," Lily looked at him strangely. As she walked off to the kitchen, "Sparky" followed her obediently, despite James' efforts to grab onto the dog.

"What the hell is he playing at?" James wondered.

A few moments later, Lily came back with Sirius the dog saying, "Such a good dog. You're better than most people!"

Sirius looked properly amused.

"I've got to go to the bathroom. I'll be right back," Lily said to James, and Sparky tried to follow.

"SPARKY!" James shouted indignantly, and the dog whined.

Lily was startled, but she didn't comment and just shot James a strange look.

"Sirius Black! What do you think you're doing?" James hissed, as soon as the bathroom door clicked shut.

Sparky gave a dog-like sigh and transformed. "I know who you like now…" Sirius laughed and made an impression of James. "I love you so much Professor Wharton! Oops-- I mean_ Lily_."

"I do not talk like that! And… I don't like her!" But from the look on James' face, it was pretty obvious that he did.

"Ahh, you and Lily are horrible liars. It makes my life so easy," Sirius said gloatingly.

"Shouldn't you be asking Amy out right now?"

"Changing the subject so quickly. This must be a big crush!" Sirius danced in a circle, but froze when he heard the toilet flush.

"Go," James said crossly, and Sirius ran to the door, but before he could get out—

"Sirius? What are you doing here?"

Sirius spun around guiltily. The silence was almost painful. Then, without warning—"Purple spots!" He shouted accusingly, pointing at James. Then, without a word more, he turned and ran out of the room.

-------------------------------------------

"Hi Amy," Sirius gasped as he collapsed through the Fat Lady portrait. He had just run all the way from the Head Room, for fear that Lily might come after him--you never knew with redheads.

"Hi Sirius. Was there practice today?" Amy asked fearfully, noting that Sirius was covered in sweat.

"No," Sirius inhaled. "Just… decided to go for a run."

"Oh okay," she sat back in her chair. "Thank God. Otherwise James would kill me."

"Are you joking? James would have screamed at you, made you play on Saturday, then torture you slowly with a thousand knives dipped in poison so the pain would be intensified."

"And I always wanted to die in my sleep," Amy said glumly.

"Well you've still got a chance," Sirius grinned.

"Hurrah!"

"Soo… Amy… how… is everything?" Sirius stuttered, his heart pacing rapidly.

"I'm fine."

"Going to the ball on Saturday?" Sirius' heart was now beating so hard that he was trembling.

"Well I bought a dress."

"And are you going with someone in that dress?"

"Not that I know of…" Amy was now having trouble breathing too.

"Great. I mean, well… would you like to go with me?" Sirius spontaneously spat out.

"That'd be awesome," Amy said, looking straight ahead, not daring to look at Sirius.

"Great. So I'll see you then," Sirius nodded, thinking he was both the happiest guy alive and the sickest one too. The urge to throw up was almost irrespressible.

------------------------------

Just as Sirius was asking Amy, James decided he would ask Lily. After all, he had intended to, hadn't he? He cleared his throat. Knowing that if he thought about it, he'd never do it; soJames began talking without even thinking.

"Lily."

"James…"

"The ball's on Saturday, and if you weren't going with anyone, I mean… I'd really like to go with you. But that's only if you want. Because if you don't, I totally understand," James trailed off and looked at her pleadingly.

"Sure, I'd love too," Lily said brightly.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Really?"

"No."

"WHAT??"

"Just kidding," Lily laughed. "What's wrong with you? You look green."

"That's because I'm Yoda," James recovered.

"He remembers," Lily declared, amused.

"I've got the memory of a thousand Dumbledores."

"Minus 1001," Lily muttered.

"Hey! I am not worth a –1 Dumbledore!"

"Oh. I'm sorry. Were you shooting for –2?"

"You should be nice to me. Otherwise, you'll have no date come Saturday."

"Horror of all horrors," Lily said mockingly.

"You bet."

Lily smiled. She practically couldn't talk, and desperately wanted to tell James that she liked him.

"Hey James—?"

"Yeah?" He looked up confused. 'Please no,' he thought. 'Don't reject me now.'

"PURPLE SPOTS ROCK!"

Sirius burst into the room and ran around in a circle.

"Gotta love those purple spots!" He sat down between a frustrated Lily and a terrified James and began hugging them both.

"Did you miss your Sirius?"

"Not really," James said truthfully.

"Well, try up your tears, dearie. I'm here to stay!"

And the rest of the night passed with Sirius Black, sandwiched in between Lily and James.

--------------

Okie dokie! Chapter 11's the last one, I wager. Please review if you've got the time, I'd greatly appreciate it. Currently I'm working on a new story, but its not coming along very well, so I don't know when I'll start to post it.

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving and please submit a review-- all the better if its constructive criticism!! I've been re-reading some of my chapters and there have been horrendous mistakes and awkward phrasing and whatnot. So I'll be revising some of the earlier chapters... I also hope to have TITLES for my chapters... because calling them "Chapter 1... Chapter 2... Chapter 3..." is very against my creative nature.


	11. In Which the Title Makes Sense

THE LAST CHAPTER!!! LIFE IS NOW OVER!

So with that lovely thought in mind-------

Chapter 11- In Which the Title Makes Sense

Thursday and Friday came and passed. Lily lost the nerve to tell James that she liked him, because "the moment never was right." Regardless, the three girls were excited about their dates for the Ball, which was a first. Friday night, the seven Gryffindors, who had become close friends, were once again gathered in the Head Room, anticipating the weekend's coming events.

"I have an idea!" Sirius shouted.

"No!! No purple spots!" James moaned.

"Purple spots?" Amy asked

"Sirius is now obsessed with purple spots. He's made up a game called purple spots," Peter explained.

"Basically Marco Polo. Just Purple-Spots," Remus rolled his eyes.

"How about we have a pillow fight?" Lily suggested.

"YEAH!" James bounced. "We can split up into two teams and make forts and then we'll FIGHT!"

"But there are only 7 of us," Marsha pointed out.

"Boys vs. Girls?" Peter suggested.

"You are soo dead," Amy sang.

And indeed they were. Lily's superior charming skills allowed the girls to make a fortress, while James, Sirius, Remus and Peter erected a misshapen pile of furniture that collapsed when the first pillow was thrown. For the rest of the game, the boys lay on the ground, salvaging pillows and retreating behind sofas and tables.

"That's not fair! They cheated!" James accused.

"And to think, you had an extra person," Lily laughed.

"With 3 Quidditch players," Marsha added.

James still was on the ground, covered by blankets that had fallen from the boys' "fort" with his hands over his head.

"Mercy!" Remus implored, as the pillows flew through the air in a continuous stream. Sirius, on the other hand, valiantly decided to desert his team and join the girls.

"Go Team Estrogen!" He squeaked, causing Amy, Lily and Marsha to turn their wrath on him.

"But I have been faithful to you great generals! I helped you defeat those lowly boys!" Sirius cried as he crawled out from under the girls' fort, being smacked with pillows.

"We won!" Lily said, as she looked around the room. There were pillows, blankets and four boys, lying on the ground.

"Victory!" Amy cried.

"Fine, Fine. Just wait until tomorrow. I'll dance circles around you. Then who will be laughing?" Sirius responded.

"I didn't know you were wearing a pink tutu tomorrow," Amy replied.

"Not pink, Purple. With spots."

--------------

The next morning found Lily sitting in bed, staring at her dress.

"It's not good enough," she protested. "I'm going with James! I should have bought something prettier."

"It is pretty, Lily, and since when have you cared?" Marsha sighed.

"Oh but James…" Lily looked down, dismayed.

"Forget it. If he really likes you…" Amy began.

"I know, then the dress doesn't matter."

"Right. That's the spirit."

"Well, never would have found anything better," Lily shrugged. "Anyway, my stomach has priority."

The three girls ran downstairs to eat breakfast in their private kitchen, where they found Remus.

"I'm so shocked," Marsha said sarcastically. Every sleepover they had, Remus was always the first person up, and he always made breakfast for the others.

Remus smiled lightly. "Good morning." He nodded.

"Remus you know. When we graduate, can I bring you with me so I'll never go hungry?" Lily asked.

"I charge 1000 galleons and not a knut less."

"Deal."

"That's per hour."

"It'll be tough, but I think I can make it," Lily said confidently, although she knew she'd never live to see 1000 galleons. (That was NOT a pun)

A splash and then a loud yell interrupted the peaceful silence. "RISE AND SHINE MUFFIN!"

"SIRIUS!"

"Lily," Remus sighed. "Could you go and break them up? And you actually know how to perform a drying charm." At this, Remus shot a dirty look at Amy, who had tried to dry James the last time, and instead set fire to his hair. But it really made no difference, because James' hair looked just as wild, and Sirius, luckily, still had a bucket of water nearby.

Lily came downstairs a moment later, dragging a protesting James.

"Honestly James. I'm not saying he's right. But this happens to you every day. Aren't you used to it yet?"

"This time he dumped strawberry smelling on me! I smell like fruit!"

"Oh no one will be able to tell the difference." Lily led James into the kitchen, where Remus was loading hash browns onto a plate.

"Mmm. Something smells like strawberries. I should have prepared some of that for breakfast," Remus stated, and was startled by James' howl.

"I'm a straaaawberry!"

"Well take a shower!" Lily huffed.

"But then I won't get food!"

"Then come sit at the table and eat your breakfast first. Then afterward, you can take your shower," Lily coaxed.

"Okay mommy," James responded placidly.

Just as everyone was about to sit down and eat breakfast, Sirius walked in.

"My Strawberry Muffin's not happy this morning," he grinned.

"ARGH!" James lurched out of his chair and began shooting streams of kiwi-scented water from his wand.

"This normalcy is really comforting, isn't it?" Remus remarked calmly, as he took a bite of his eggs.

---------------

There were two hours before the ball, and Lily, Marsha and Amy were still engrossed in playing Exploding Snap with the four boys.

"Aren't you supposed to be scampering away to primp?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow.

Lily shot him a scathing look.

"Not… that you need it," James added quickly and smiled sweetly at her for the effect.

"And I thought we were friends!" Amy exclaimed.

"Indeed. And the minute we be nice to them, their response is to push us away. Like unwanted dirty dogs," Marsha fake-sobbed.

"Woe is me!" Lily joined in.

"You're almost as bad as Sirius sometimes," Remus sighed.

"But not quite up to par!" Sirius said proudly. "You ladies need to work harder than that to get up to _my_ standards!"

"PURPLE SPOTS!" Amy screamed and then pointed at him.

"Nope. I'm still better."

"Are not!"

"Am too!"

"Are not are not are not!"

"Am too am too am too!"

"Am too!"

"Are no—Wha?"

Lily shook her head. What an odd, odd couple.

----------

Eventually, the girls resigned to going upstairs and engage in the activity of "powdering their noses," as they contemptuously called it.

"It's a bloody hour until we have to go down," Marsha muttered.

"That's a lot of powder," Lily remarked.

After taking turns taking showers, doing their hair and putting on their dress robes, the girls sat on Lily's bed and glanced at the clock.

"Fifteen minutes… should we do something else?" Amy looked at herself in the mirror. A few minutes were spent fidgeting, and then the girls resolved to put on some make-up.

"This is boring," Lily sighed.

"Yummy cherry lip gloss," Amy said.

"Don't eat the lip gloss Amy," Marsha snapped.

"It tastes like a field of cherries. Like cherry pie. Like cherry supreme."

"It's made out of petroleum jelly," Lily informed.

"Petro—Ugh!" Amy exclaimed as Lily dished out some petroleum jelly from a small jar on her dresser and slapped it on Amy's arm.

"Ooo Sirius gonna kill you. Now I'm not perfect," Amy mocked.

Finally, the girls descended the staircase and found the Remus, Sirius and James sitting in chairs waiting for them.

"At last! Lord have mercy I thought my head was going to fall off!" Sirius cried.

"You guys look great," James said, although he was fixedly staring at Lily, making her blush.

"Yeah, ditto to that," Remus managed.

"That extra time did you lots of good!" Sirius added, and they all stared at him.

"That was meant to be a compliment…" He said meekly. "Because, you normally are just gorgeous. And now. You're the drop dead kind. I mean the drop dead gorgeous kind. Not the kind of person who just drops dead. Because that's an insult."

"Sirius shut up," Amy said, rolling her eyes.

The six Gryffindors made their way to the Great Hall, where they found Professor McGonagall standing there.

"Well it's very kind of you to show up five minutes before the ball starts!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed.

"Aww Minerva dear, you were waiting for us?" Sirius said, pretending to blush. The look he received made him retract his comment and never again venture to use McGonagall's first name.

"Lily, James, Marsha, Remus… You were supposed to be here 10 minutes ago! Especially you two heads! You have the opening dance!"

"Oh," Lily said in horror. "Oh Professor, I'm so sorry. I completely forgot. We were just—"

"Away you go!" McGonagall cried at the Gryffindors.

"Wha—?" Remus asked, but before he could finish, McGonagall, in a frenzy, shoved Lily and James through the door, where a great number of students were sitting around at tables with their dates. Immediately, a grand orchestra began playing a song, and Lily and James awkwardly made their way to the center of the room and began dancing.

"This is beautiful," Lily said sarcastically.

"Well could be worse."

"Really."

"Your dress could blow up."

"Thanks James. I'll remember that next time. Gee, my whole life sucks and everyone in the world died. But at least my dress didn't blow up!"

"Remember when you make that quote, you have to give me credit," James grinned cheekily.

Couples began to take the dance floor, and Remus, leading a slightly nervous Marsha, began dancing next to Lily and James.

"What are we talking about now?" Remus asked.

"Lily's dress blowing up," James responded.

"Aren't we anxious?" Sirius said, approaching with Amy and wiggling his eyebrows emphatically. He watched with considerable amusement as James had a hard time deciding between being embarrassed and offended.

"That doesn't really make sense for a dirty joke," Marsha said.

"In Sirius' world, everything is a dirty joke," Remus replied, laughing.

"Hi James," a 6th year Hufflepuff, caked in make-up said seductively.

"Er. Hello," James said.

"Would you like to dance?" She fingered his dress robe and did her best to look sexy.

"No thanks, I've got a dance partner here," James said, clutching onto Lily.

"Well," the Hufflepuff gave a girly laugh, "It's not like you two _have_ to stick together all night long."

"Sorry. Can't."

The girl looked offended, but walked away.

"James. Let-go-of-arm. Need. Circulation," Lily said, wrenching her arm free.

"Sorry! What a freaky youngster," James apologized.

--------------

All night long, Lily and James had been apologizing to students who were seeking them out as dancing partners. Severus Snape had even approached Lily and, running his fingers through his slicked back hair, acted like he would be the perfect catch for her. The only thing he got out of it was an earful of James' guffawing.

"Maybe we should go somewhere," James suggested half-heartedly.

"Okay yeah, I guess."

The two students made their way outside, where the crisp autumn chill enveloped them and made Lily's breath catch.

"I love this temperature," she said, spreading out her arms.

"Yeah…" James trailed off into silence and they stared at the flickering lights in Hagrid's cabin.

"Hey Lily? Can I ask you something?"

"Sure. What?"

"I mean, can I state something?"

"Sure."

"I mean, can I state and ask?"

"James…" Lily said sighing.

"Right! Umm… well see… the thing is…" James said slowly, "I guess there's no other way to say it. I really really like you. Like a lot. Like I've never liked any other girl." He looked at her earnestly.

Lily smiled at him, but James, in his nervous state, didn't notice. He took her silence to mean confusion.

"I mean—of course you don't like me," he continued. "You're so pretty and smart and funny and I'm sure a thousand guys have fallen in love with you. And I completely understand if you don't feel the same way, I just thought—"

"James," Lily whispered softly, cutting him off. "I like you a lot too. Like more than anyone else."

And letting go of all her former beliefs about love and rejection and doubt, Lily reached up and kissed a very shocked James.

"I—wow," James stuttered.

"No kidding," Lily breathed.

James and Lily gazed at the stars, filled with love and happiness. And with the stars overhead, holding all the destiny in the world, two lucky Hogwarts students got the chance to pluck their own fortunes from the sea of lights.

THE END

A/N: Awww, and the author opts for romantic sweetness again. Darn it... well it was supposed to be romance, was it not? So this is the end I suppose...

I'm currently working on another piece thats a little more dark and less... purple spottish. That is to say, I _was_ working on another piece. I'm having writer's block... or a variation of it-- wherein I don't want to continue the story because it makes me depressed. lol.

Well it's been fun. Thanks to those of you who reviewed my very first fanfic... and I hope I'll get to work on that second one!


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